Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00113)

Oct 10 2003
 
Dear Friend:
 
Re: KAMA AND KAMALOKA
 
Here are some useful quotations from original THEOSOPHY texts.
 
-----------------------------
 
 
KAMA - DESIRE AND PASSIONS
 
================
 
 
KAMA (Sk.). Evil desire, lust, volition; the
cleaving to existence [tanha]. Kama is generally identified with Mara
the tempter." (See SD II 578-9) GLOS 170 ; MARA -- see GLOS 206
 
 
"...the brute in us is made of the passions and the astral body. The
development of the germs of Mind made man because it constituted the
great differentiation. The God within begins with Manas or Mind, and it
is the struggle between this God and the brute below which Theosophy
speaks of and warns about. The lower principle is called "bad" because
by comparison with the higher it is so, but still, it is the basis for
action. We cannot rise unless self first asserts itself in the desire
to do better. In this aspect it is called rajas or the active and "bad"
quality, as distinguished from tamas, or the quality of darkness and
indifference...rajas [gives] the impulse, and by the use of this
principle of passion all the higher qualities are brought to at last so
refine and elevate our desires that they may be continually placed upon
truth and spirit...Theosophy does not teach that the passions are to be
pandered to or satiated, for a more pernicious doctrine was never
taught, but the injunction is to make use of the activity given by the
4th principle so as to rise and not to fall under the dominion of the
dark quality that ends with annihilation, after having begun is
selfishness and indifference..."  
The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY pp. 49-50
 
 
 
KAMARUPA  
 
 
KAMARUPA (Sk.). Metaphysically...in esoteric philosophy, it is the
subjective form created through the mental and physical desires and
thoughts in connection with things of matter, by all sentient beings, a
form which survives the death of their bodies. After death 3 of the 7
"principles"--or let us say planes of senses and consciousness on which
the human instincts and ideation act in turn--viz., the body, its astral
prototype and physical vitality,--being of no further use, remain on
earth; the 3 higher principles, grouped into one, merge into the state
of Devachan, in which state the Higher Ego [Higher Manas] will remain
until the hour for a new incarnation arrives; and the eidolon of the
ex-Personality is left alone in its new abode. Here the pale copy of
the man that was, vegetates for a period of time, the duration of which
is variable and according to the element of materiality which is left in
it, and which is determined by the past life of the defunct. Bereft as
it is of its higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to
its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate.
But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether by the
passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends or by regular
necromantic practices--one of the most pernicious of which is
mediumship--the "spook" may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the
span of the natural life of its body. One the Kamarupa has learnt the
way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the
vitality of those who are so anxious for its company..."
GLOS 172
(see KEY p. 143-4, ML 108-9 112 118 198; A to Q 65 240) 
(see SD I 334 260 337fn VOICE 12fn)
  
 
"...the word Kama...means "desire,"...the 4th principle was the "body or
mass of desires and passions." [GITA NOTES 197: -- "Western psychology
in classifications refers solely to mental states...[Eastern} and the
ancient sages classifies the moral states, treating the mental states as
mere effects produced by moral conditions...It lays bare unsuspected
bases of error; it discloses the most subtle forms of self-delusion;
it marks out the true course so painstakingly that the dullest mind
cannot fail to grasp a clear perception of the path to true
knowledge."]...The west divides man into intellect, will and feeling,
but it is not understood whether the passions and desires constitute a
principle in themselves or are due entirely to the body..."desires of
the flesh"..."fleshly appetites." OCEAN 45
 
 
"The passions and desires are not produced by the body...on the
contrary, the body is caused by the former. it is desire and passion
which caused us to be born, and will bring us to birth again and again
in some body on this earth...[it] is the balance principle of the whole
7. It stands in the middle, and from it the ways go up or down. It is
the basis of action, and the mover of the will..."Behind will stands
desire." OCEAN 46
 
 
"The astral man in kama loka is a mere shell devoid of soul [Higher
Mind] and mind [Kama Manas], without conscience and also unable to act
unless vivified by forces outside of itself. It has that which seems
like an animal or automatic consciousness due wholly to the very recent
association with the human Ego...every atom...has a memory of its own
which is capable of lasting a length of time in proportion to the force
given it. 
 
In the case of a very material and gross or selfish person the force
lasts longer than in any other, and hence in that case the automatic
consciousness will be more definite and bewildering to one who without
knowledge dabbles with necromancy. Its purely astral portion contains
and carries the record of all that ever passed before the person when
living, for one of the qualities of the astral substance is to absorb
all scenes and pictures and the impressions of all thoughts, to keep
them, and to throw them forth by reflection when the conditions permit.
 
This astral shell, cast off by every man at death, would be a menace to
all men were it not in every case, except one...devoid of all the higher
guiding principles which are the directors. But those guiding
principles being disjoined from the shell, it wavers and floats about
from place to place without any will of its own, but governed wholly by
attractions in the astral and magnetic fields...Soulless and
conscienceless, these in no sense are the spirits of our deceased ones.
They are the clothing thrown off by the inner man, the brutal earthly
portion discarded in the flight to devachan, and so have always been
considered by the ancients as devils...because essentially astral earthy
and passional...[they] retain an automatic memory and consciousness
[after being for so long the vehicle of the real man on earth]..."
OCEAN 103-104
 
 
 
[Low desires] the constant placing of the consciousness entirely below
in the body or astral body... [High desires] the influence of and
aspiration to the trinity above, of Mind, Buddhi and Spirit...
 
[During life] the emplacement of the desires and passions
is...throughout the entire lower man...it may be added to or diminished,
made weak or increased in strength, debased or purified.
 
[After death] it (Kama) informs the astral body, which then becomes a
mere shell; for when a man dies his astral body and principle of
passion and desire leave the physical in company and coalesce, It is
then that the term Kamarupa may be applied, as Kamarupa is really made
of astral body and Kama in conjunction, and this joining of the two
makes a shape or form which though ordinarily invisible is material and
may be brought into visibility.  
 
Although it is empty of mind and conscience, it has powers of its own
that can be exercised whenever the conditions permit. These conditions
are furnished by the medium of the spiritualists, and in every seance
room the astral shells of deceased persons are always present to delude
the sitters... For the astral spook--or Kamarupa--is but the mass of the
desires and passions abandoned by the real person who has fled to
"heaven and has no concern with the people left behind, least of all
with seances and mediums.
 
Hence, being devoid of the nobler soul, these desires and passions work
only on the very lowest part of the medium's nature and stir up no good
elements, but always the lower leanings of the being...
 
The Kamarupa spook is the enemy of our civilization, which permits us to
execute men for crimes committed and thus throws out into the ether the
mass of passion and desire free from the weight of the body and liable
at any moment to be attracted to any sensitive person. Being thus
attracted, the deplorable images of crimes committed and also the
picture of the execution and all the accompanying curses and wishes for
revenge are implanted in living persons, who, not seeing the evil, are
unable to throw it off. Thus crimes and new ideas of crimes are
willfully propagated every day by those countries where capital
punishment prevails." OCEAN 47-48
 
 
"The astral shells together with the still living astral body of the
medium, helped by...forces of nature...[called] "elementals" produce
nearly all the phenomena of non-fraudulent spiritualism...[examples
given]...in all this using and being used by the shells of suicides,
executed murderers, and all such spooks as are naturally near to this
plane of life…the astral shells of suicides and executed criminals are
the most coherent, longest lived, and nearest to us of all the shades of
Hades, and hence must, out of the necessity of the case, be the real
"controls" of the seance room." OCEAN 48-49
 
 
KAMA LOKA
 
 
KAMALOKA (Sk.). The semi-material plane, to us subjective and
invisible, where the disembodied "personalities," the astral forms,
called kamarupa remain, until they fade out from it by the complete
exhaustion of the effects of the mental impulses that created these
eidolons of human and animal passions and desires...It is the Hades of
the ancient Greeks and Amenti of the Egyptians, the land of Silent
Shadows; a division of the first group of the Trailokya. (see Kamadhatu
Gl. 171) GLOS 171-2 (see ML 108-9 112 198 187- a
few hours to a few years -
LUCIFER III 174 - muddy torrents of K L -
 
 
Kama loka--or the place of desire--is the astral region penetrating and
surrounding the earth. As a place it is and on and about the earth.
Its extent is to a measurable distance from the earth, but the ordinary
laws obtaining here do not obtain there, and entities therein are not
under the same conditions as to space and time as we are. As a state it
is metaphysical...[relating] to the astral plane...in it the ruling
force is desire devoid of and divorced from intelligence. It is an
astral sphere intermediate between earthly and heavenly life...the
origin of purgatory....the soul may be detained in kamaloca by the
enormous force of some unsatisfied desire, and cannot get rid of the
astral and kamic clothing until that desire is satisfied by someone on
earth or by the soul itself.
 
But if the person was pure minded and of high aspirations, the
separation of the principles on that plane is soon completed, permitting
the higher triad to go into devachan.  
 
Being the purely astral sphere, it partakes of the nature of astral
matter which is essentially earthly and devilish, and in it all the
forces work undirected by soul or conscience. It is the slag-pit...of
the great furnace of life, where nature provides for the sloughing off
of elements which have no place in devachan...it must have many
degrees...lokas or places in a metaphysical sense….in kama loca all the
hidden desires and passions are let loose in consequence of the absence
of the body, and for that reason the state is more diversified than the
life plane." OCEAN 100-1
 
 
"...in kama-loca this mass of desire and thoughts exists very definitely
until the conclusion of its disintegration, and then the remainder
consists of the essence of those skandhas, connected...with the being
that evolved and had them...they are said to remain until the being
comes out of devachan, and then at once by the law of attraction they
are drawn to the being, who from them as a germ or basis builds up a new
set of skandhas for the new life." OCEAN 103
 
 
"A rough classification of these shells that visit mediums would be as
follows:
 
1. Those of the recently deceased, whose place of burial is not
far away [ Protestant Christian Churches are often located in or near a
burial field or persons buried in the Church itself ] This class will be
quite coherent in accordance with the life and thought of the former
owner. An unmaterial, good, and spiritualized person leaves a shell
that will soon disintegrate. A gross, mean, selfish, material person's
shell will be heavy, consistent, and long lived...
 
2. Those of persons who died far away from the place where the
medium is. Lapse of time permits such to escape from the vicinity of
their old bodies, and at the same time brings on a greater degree of
disintegration which corresponds on the astral plane to putrefaction of
the physical. These are vague, shadowy, incoherent; respond but
briefly to the psychic stimulus, and are whirled off by any magnetic
current. They are galvanized for a moment by the astral currents of the
medium and of those persons present who were related to the deceased.
 
3. Purely shadowy remains which can hardly be given a
place...the mere mold or impress left in the astral substance by the
once coherent shell long since disintegrated...[almost]
fictitious...such shadowy photographs ...are enlarged, decorated, and
given an imaginary life by the thoughts, desires, hopes and imaginings
of medium and sitters at the seance.
 
4. ( see description of "Elementaries" under that heading in
this paper )
 
"...suicides and those who are suddenly shot out of life by accident or
murder, legal or illegal, pass a term almost equal to the length life
would have been but for the sudden termination. These are not really
dead. To bring on a normal death, a factor not recognized by medical
science must be present. That is, the principles of the being...have
their own term of cohesion, at the natural end of which they separate
from each other under their own laws...before that natural end the
principles are unable to separate...the normal destruction of the
cohesive force cannot be brought about by mechanical processes except in
respect to the physical body. Hence a suicide, or person killed in an
accident or murdered by man or by order of human law, has not come to
the natural termination of the cohesion among the other constituents,
and is hurled into the kamaloca state only partly dead. There the
remaining principles have to wait until the actual natural life term is
reached, whether it be one month or sixty years.
OCEAN p. 105-108
 
[End of kama loca] After a certain time in kama loca the being falls
into a state of unconsciousness which precedes the change into the next
state. It is like the birth into life, preluded by a term of darkness
and heavy sleep. It then wakes to the joys of devachan."
OCEAN p. 108
 
 
 
SKANDHAS - THE VEHICLES OF KARMA
 
 
[kama]...the 4th principle in the classification of man's
constitution...they are not merely inherent in the individual nor are
they due to the body per se. While man is living in the world the
desires and passions--kama--have no separate life apart from the astral
and inner man, being...diffused throughout his being. But...they
coalesce with the astral body after death and thus form an entity with
its own term of life, though without soul...During mortal life the
desires and passions are guided by the mind and soul [Higher Manas];
after death they work without guidance from the former master; while we
live we are responsible for them and their effects, and when we have
left this life we are still responsible, although they go on working and
making effects on others while they last as the sort of entity...without
our direct guidance. In this is seen the continuance of responsibility.
They are a portion of the skandhas...which are the aggregates that make
up man. The body includes on set of the skandhas, the astral man
another, the kama principle is another set, and still others pertain to
other parts. In kama are the really active and important ones which
control rebirths and lead to all the varieties of life and circumstances
upon each rebirth, They are being made from day to day under the great
law that every thought combines instantly with one of the elemental
forces of nature, becoming to that extent an entity which will endure in
accordance with the strength of the thought as it leaves the brain, and
all of these are inseparably connected with the being [man] who evolved
them...all we can do is to have thoughts of good quality...the Masters
are not exempt from this law, but they "people their current in space"
with thoughts powerful for good alone." OCEAN 101-102
 
 
"Existing in the sphere of kama loka, as...also in all parts of the
globe and the solar system, are the elementals or nature forces. They
are innumerable, and their divisions are almost infinite...they
are...the nerves of nature. Each class has its own work just as has
every natural element or thing...the elementals act under law, but being
higher in the scale than gross fire or water their action seems guided
by mind. Some of them have a special relation to mental operations and
to mental operations and to the action of the astral organs, whether
these be joined to a body or not. When a medium forms the channel, and
also from other natural coordinations, these elementals make an
artificial connection with the shell of a deceased person, aided by the
nervous fluid of the medium and others near, and then the shell is
galvanized into an artificial life. Through the medium connection is
made with the physical and psychical forces of all present. The old
impressions of the astral body given up their images to the mind of the
medium, the old passions are set on fire. Various messages and reports
are then obtained from it, but not one of them is original, not one is
from the spirit. By their strangeness...this is mistaken for the work
of the spirit, but it is all from the living when it is not the mere
picking out from the astral light of the images of what has been in the
past." OCEAN p. 104-5
 
 
 
ASTRAL LIGHT - ASTRAL BODY - MEDIUMSHIP - SEANCES
 
 
"...the intermediary between mind and body--the astral body--is thrown
off at death and left in the astral light to fade away; and...the real
man goes to Devachan.
 
The existence, nature, power and function of the astral light and its
place as a register in Nature. That it contains, retains, and reflects
pictures of each and every thing that happened to anyone, and also every
thought; that it permeates the globe and the atmosphere around it;
that the transmission of vibration through it is practically
instantaneous, since the rate is much quicker than that of electricity
as now known.
 
The existence in the astral light of beings not using bodies like ours,
but not human in their nature, having powers, faculties, and a sort of
consciousness of their own; these include the elemental forces or
nature sprites divided into many degrees, and which have to do with
every operation of Nature and every motion of the mind of man. That
these elementals act at seances automatically in their various
departments, one class presenting pictures, another producing sounds,
and others depolarizing objects for the purposes of apportation. Acting
with them in the astral sphere are the soulless men who live in it. To
these are ascribed the phenomenon, among others, of the "independent
voice," always sounding like a voice in a barrel just because it is made
in a vacuum which is absolutely necessary for an entity so far removed
from spirit...
 
The astral body of the medium...extended from the physical body, may
also extrude at times any portion of itself such as hand, arm, or leg
and thereby move objects, indite letters, produce touches on the body,
and so on...and the astral body of any person may be made to feel
sensation...transmitted to the brain, causes the person to think he is
touched on the outside or has heard a sound.
 
Mediumship is dangerous because the astral part of the man is now only
normal in action when joined to the body...to become a medium means that
you have to become disorganized physiologically and in the nervous
system, because through the latter is the connection between the two
worlds. The moment the door is opened all the unknown forces rush in,
and, as the grosser part of nature is nearest to us it is that part
which affects us most; the lower nature is also first affected and
inflamed because the forces used are from that part of us. We are then
at the mercy of the vile thoughts or all men, and subject to the
influence of the shells in Kama Loka...
 
To attempt to acquire the use of the psychic powers for mere curiosity
or for selfish ends is also dangerous for the same reasons as in the
case of mediumship. As the...present day is selfish to the last degree
and built on the personal element, the rules for these powers in the
right way have not been given out, but the Masters of Wisdom have said
that philosophy and ethics must first be learned and practiced before
any development of the other department [psychism] is indulged in...
 
Equally improper is the manner of the scientific schools which...indulge
in experiments in hypnotism in which the subjects are injured for
life... For this reason, those who know all about the psychical world,
its denizens and laws, are proceeding with a reform in morals and
philosophy before any great attention will be accorded to the strange
and seductive phenomena possible for the inner powers of man."
OCEAN 150 - 152
 
 
[ In The Key to Theosophy Mme. Blavatsky gives the same general facts
relating to Kama-loca and to Devachan, and traces the progress of the
principles of man after the death of the body. Skandhas are considered
by her as the "carriers" of man's karma. She proceeds in the next
chapters (x, xi) to explain the nature of the Mind - "Thinking
Principle" - and Reincarnation as a universal process of progression.
KEY pp. 143 - 226 ]
 
============================================================
 
 
 
[ from MAHATMA LETTERS 112-4]
 
On Kama-Loka
 
Now the causes producing the “new being” and determining the nature of
Karma are Trishna (or tanha)—thirst, desire for sentient existence, and
Upadana, which is the realisation or con summation of trishna or that
desire. And both of these the medium helps to develop ne plus ultra in
an Elementary, be he a suicide or a victim, (alone the Shells and
Elementals are left unhurt, tho’ the morality of the sensitives can by
no means be improved by the intercourse). The rule is that a person who
dies a natural death will [238]
 
remain from “a few hours to several short years” within the earth’s
attraction, i.e., the Kama-loka. But exceptions are the cases of
suicides and those who die a violent death in general. Hence one of such
Egos who was destined to live—say 8o or 90 years, but who either killed
himself or was killed by some accident, let us suppose at the age of 20,
would have to pass in the Kama-loka not a few years but, in his case, 6o
or 70 years as an Elementary or rather an “earth-walker,” since he is
not, unfortunately for him, even a “Shell.” 
 
Happy, thrice happy, in comparison, are those disembodied entities who
sleep their long slumber and live in dream in the bosom of Space! And
woe to those whose trishna may attract them to mediums, and woe to the
latter who tempt them with such an easy upadana. For in grasping them
and satisfying their thirst for life, the medium helps to develop in
them—is in fact the cause of—a new set of Skandhas, a new body, with far
worse tendencies and passions than the one they lost. 
 
All the future of this new body will be determined thus, not only by the
Karma of demerit of the previous set or group, but also by that of the
new set of the future being. Were the mediums and spiritualists but to
know, as I said, that with every new “angel guide” they welcome with
rapture, they entice the latter into an upadana which will be productive
of untold evils for the Ego that will be reborn under its nefarious
shadow; that with every seance, especially for materialisation, they
multiply the causes for misery, causes that will make the unfortunate
Ego fail in his spiritual birth or be reborn into a far worse existence
than ever; they would perhaps be less lavish in their hospitality. . .
It is through this that the gross and pernicious doctrine of spirit
brides and husbands arises. But one day it will return to curse those
who now are guilty of thus attracting these wandering shades into the
vehicle of a medium’s body; it is now cursing many men who find
themselves forever in a mental hell, at war with themselves and with
their best thoughts, they know not why. And if some poor suicide, drawn
thus down into vicarious existence, “misses his spiritual birth” and
loses the monad—the God within, shall no Karma strike those who were the
remote or proximate agents? It will. * *
 
Path, August, 1889
 
 
 
====================================================
 
 
I trust this will help you, If more details are needed,
please ask,
 
Best wishes,
 
Dallas
 
 
=====================================
 
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Pablo S
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 6:19 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Kamarupa, Kamaloka Presentation
 
Hi!
 
I'm new in the list. My name is Pablo Sender and I'm Argentinean, so
sorry for my english (I can read very well but my writing is not so
good). I'm a TS Adyar member since 8 years ago.
 
I find very interesting the messages about Kama and Kama Rupa. I just
want point out a detail about it: in my understanding, HPB says that the
Kama Rupa forms only after death. In live, there are 'kamic elements'
attached to the manas.
 
May be this can clarified a bit the question about skandhas and the
kamic elements that forms them: from certain point of view both are not
distinct.
 
With regards
Pablo
 
_____  

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